Sergei Filin, 42, was attacked as he got out of his car outside his home in central Moscow, according to a police spokesman, Sky News reports.

"I got scared and I thought he was going to shoot me," Filin, his head and face covered with white bandages, said in an interview with REN TV. "I turned around to run, but he raced ahead of me."

Filin said the attacker wore a hood and either a mask or a scarf, so only his eyes were visible.

The former Bolshoi ballet star, who has been receiving threats since December, was appointed artistic director for the legendary theater in March 2011 after a fierce competition.

Bolshoi general director Anatoly Iksanov told Channel One TV that he believes the attack was linked to Filin's professional work.

"He is a man of principle and never compromised," Iksanov said. "If he believed that this or that dancer was not ready or was unable to perform this or that part, he would turn them down."

Filin knew that someone was threatening him or trying to undermine his position, Iksanov said.

He said Filin's car tires had been slashed earlier this week and he was targeted in early January by hackers who posted his professional correspondence online.

"He said 'I have a feeling that I am on the front lines,'" Iksanov quoted Filin as telling him Thursday before the attack.

Iksanov later backed away from the suggestion that the attack was linked to Filin's casting decisions, the Associated Press reported.

"The goal (of the attack) was to create a split and disagreement in the theater's management," Iksanov told journalists gathered at the theater. Channel One deleted his statement from its reports later in the day.

Filin was hospitalized with severe burns of multiple degrees to his face and eyes, RT reports, including third-degree cornea burns.

Doctors say he will need plastic surgery and will likely need a wig, as his hair is expected to being falling out.

Alexei Ratmansky, who was the Bolshoi ballet's artistic director from 2004 until 2008, described an atmosphere of intrigue at the theater.

"What happened with Sergei Filin was not accidental," Ratmansky, now an artist-in-residence at the American Ballet Theater, posted on his Facebook page. "The Bolshoi has many ills. It's a disgusting cesspool, of those developing friendships with the artists, the speculators and scalpers, the half-crazy fans ready to bite the throats of the rivals of their favorites, the cynical hackers, the lies in the press and the scandalous interviews of staff.

"This is all one snowball caused by the lack of any ethics at the theater," Ratmaksy writes, while wishing Filin "a speedy recovery and courage."

The Bolshoi Theater reopened in October 2011 after a massive six-year reconstruction effort.

In 2011 two ballet stars -- Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev -- resigned in protest at the Bolshoi's new repertoire, the BBC reported.